Patrick M. Gallivan's posts related to Drugs

Western New York has been rocked recently by several high profile incidents involving the hit-and-run deaths of area teens and young adults. The most widely publicized was the hit-and-run death of 18-year-old Alix Rice of Amherst.

Legislation Responds To Tragically Similar Cases In Buffalo, Rochester Areas

Senator Patrick M. Gallivan (R-C-I, 59th District), Chair of the Senate’s Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections Committee, announced today that the New York State Senate passed legislation (S.4772) to increase penalties for those who commit vehicular manslaughter and have a history of serially driving under the influence.

Like everything in the United States, drug use and abuse has evolved alongside the ebb and flow of larger American culture. The sixties and seventies saw the rise in recreational use of marihuana and psychedelics like LSD. Later cocaine become a popular substance of choice, and along with it, the development of crack cocaine – a compound so addictive and destructive that many communities are still struggling to recover from the crack epidemic of the late eighties and early nineties that devastated neighborhoods and urban centers across the country. More recently, we have experienced an increase in heroin and synthetic opioid use along with designer drugs like ecstasy and methamphetamine.